NAME: ________________________________
PRE- OR POST-VISIT ACTIVITY – Ritual and Revolution
DIRECTIONS: Below is a list of events related to tea. Read through the list and determine which
events are key in the start of the Revolution. Star your top two choices and explain those
choices using the back of this paper.
1773
May 10
Parliament passes the Tea Act, giving a monopoly on tea sales to the East
India Company, and asserted its right to tax the American colonies.
Aug. 4
East India Company announces that only certain merchants will be allowed
to sell tea. All Boston merchants are loyalists.
Sept. 6
New York newspaper publishes entire text of the Tea Act causing an
outrage.
Nov. 5
Committees formed in Boston to call on tea consignees and demand they
resign.
Nov. 17
A mob smashes windows of the home of Richard Clark, a wealthy tea
consignee.
Nov. 27
In Boston, 25 men are appointed to guard arriving ships so no tea can be
unloaded.
The Dartmouth, first of three ships carrying tea, arrives in Boston. Cargo
Nov. 28
1744
must be unloaded and tax payed within 28 days or the cargo is seized by
custom officials.
Nov. 29
The “Body of the People” meet at Old South Meeting House and resolve
the tea must not be unloaded. They vote to send it back to England.
Dec. 2&7
The second and third tea ships (Eleanor & Beaver) arrive in Boston.
Dec. 13
Tea consignees in Philadelphia and New York resign due to pressure. The
people of Lexington, Massachusetts burn all the tea they own in a bonfire.
Dec. 16
The Boston Tea Party; in the evening 340 chests of tea are destroyed and
thrown from the ships into the harbor.
Mar. 8
Bostonians destroy 28.5 crates of tea on an English ship, the Fortune.
Mar. 30
Parliament passes The Boston Port Bill, closing Boston to ocean traffic until
destroyed tea is paid for. Today, this fee would be over 2 million dollars!
May 20
Parliament passes Administration of Justice Act placing Massachusetts
under martial law.
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